LONDON: TSA Yields N2.2tn In Three Months, Says Buhari

President Mohammadu Buhari

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari was on Thursday prior to his short vacation which commenced on Friday disclosed that the  his administration has within three months saved N2.2 trillion for the nation through the enforcement of the Treasury Single Account, TSA. 

The president stated this in London in a meeting with Nigerians-in-Diaspora in the United Kingdom. However, it was discovered that the President was in the United Kingdom for the Supporting Syria and the Region Conference in London during which he highlighted on the challenges surrounding the oil and gas sector.

In his analysis, he stated that on assumption of office, one of the first steps his administration embarked upon was to doggedly create the Single Treasury Account upon discoveries that there was no proper accountability in the system.

Emphatically, he said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation, NNPC was discovered to be operating over 45 accounts domiciled in different banks. 

In a similar vein,, the President noted that the military was discovered to operate in similar manner which he assertively stated was the foundation of corruption in Nigeria. However, he admitted that the idea of the TSA was initiated by the previous administration though inactive then.   

“First, NNPC, the cow that was giving the milk had more than 45 accounts, ministry of defense, that is the military Army, Navy and air force had over 70 accounts. Tell me which account we can trace in these several accounts. So we enforce TSA. We said there must be TSA. “By the end of December, coming to January this year, that is last month, we mopped up more than N2.2trn which we have used through the bureaucracy system to raise vouchers and sign cheques so that they don’t go into the next budget,” he said.

The President also shed more light the crises affecting the economy particularly the continuous rise of the foreign currency adding that some of the citizens were culpable in the ugly development. Specifically, he accused most of the Directors of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN of owning and operating some of the Bureau De Change companies in the country through which the take advantage of their positions and raked the foreign exchange adding that his administration is already putting stringent measures in place to put a permanent stop to such unwholesome practices.

 “We found out, when I say we, I mean present federal government, that some of the directors in the central bank own the bureau de change businesses. So when the foreign exchange comes, they take it and give government the change. So we stopped the Federal Government giving bureau de change foreign exchange. “Fellow country men and women, I am giving you a tip of the iceberg of the problem we inherited and we are getting so hard because we have no other way of running the country unless we make everybody accountable”, President Buhari said.

Finally, he assured the audience that his administration is determined to sanitize the system despite the fact that the judiciary is giving him a headache in the battle. He disclosed that the federal government is also considering the possibility of enabling the citizens-in –Diaspora participate in future elections so as to be active partners in the development of the country.